Man Cannot Recoup Child Support

A man cannot recoup child support payments he made for a son he later found out was not his own, the New Jersey state Supreme Court has ruled, overturning lower courts' decisions. In its unanimous ruling, the justices ruled that the man, identified only as Roy in the lawsuit, was not entitled to payments he made since his 1980 divorce because state law required such a challenge to be filed before the child turned 23 years old.
The court ruled that even though the man found out only long after his son turned 23 that he was not the father, it wasn't enough to force the biological father, identified as Patrick, to pay child support.

The man was told in 1999 by his ex-wife, identified as Bonnie, that their youngest son was actually the child of the boy's godfather.

Several years ago I tried a disestablishment of paternity action whereby my client sought to disestablish paternity because he questioned whether he was the girl's father and understandably felt that he should discontinue paying support if it wasn't his.

Iowa law requires such action to be filed before a child's 18th birthday. Like the NJ court, Iowa courts will not require reimbursement of amounts paid; however, if there is back-owed support owed the court, upon disestablishment of paternity through genetic testing, will "forgive" the back-owed amount. Whether this is fundamentally fair depends on which side of the case you are on.